A Big Win for Rally Partners.

Byline: KELLY McGILVERY

Precision and accuracy were the touchstone for success in The Great Race, the time-speed-distance competition of vintage automobiles that wrapped up in Daytona Beach, Florida, on July 4. The course ran through 15 states and across 4000 miles in 12 days. More than 100 driver-navigator teams followed a comprehensive set of directions through small towns, on back roads and the interstate highways of the Midwest and South.

The exactness necessary to win this rally proved a challenge to even the most experienced drivers, who spent 10 hours a day on the road. Using speedometers accurate to 0.25 mph, penalty points were given for each second off schedule at each checkpoint. Just like golf, the low score wins.

Few alterations to the cars, which included a 1910 Selden Raceabout and a 1950 Allard J2, were allowed. Four-wheel brakes could be added, for instance, and engine alterations could be made only if they were legal when the car was new. To maintain the race's focus on navigation rather than technology, the cars' odometers and clocks were covered up, cell phones were stashed away, and roadside cameras and timers worked to spot-check the proficiency with which crews followed directions.

Bruce Gezon, navigator for the 1934 Ford Roadster reproduction driven by ...